Gripla - 20.12.2017, Qupperneq 170

GRIPLA170
this article will discuss one such overlooked illuminated manu-
script group. the group in question was established around the oldest
Heimskringla fragment Lbs fragm 82 (Kringla) from c. 1258–64.5 The first
part of this article will describe the main characteristics of this group. the
second part will examine this group in relation to a second manuscript
group from the early fourteenth century, as well as discussing its earli-
est provenance. It will be argued that a number of hands who worked on
manuscripts belonging to the first group may have acted as illuminators for
several of the manuscripts, and that one illuminator of the second group
might have worked together with a late scribe of the first group. It will be
shown that some of the manuscripts and fragments from that earlier group
were not the product of an isolated scriptorium but rather of an open space
for independent scribes and artists working in western Iceland for a period
of more than fifty years.6 overall, in the spirit of the ‘Material Philology’,
this article seeks to provide an interdisciplinary overview of the mecha-
nisms of manuscript production. not only will the different contributions
of the major scribes and illuminators be discussed, but also codicological
features of various production units, such as a similar use of colours or re-
lated stages of oxidation of rubrics and initials, will be considered.7 Neither
the first nor the second of the two manuscript groups has been successfully
located to any specific scriptorium to date. In the final part of the article,
a hypothesis regarding how these two groups were connected to a third
manuscript group associated with the established house of canons regular
of Helgafell (in western Iceland) will be presented.
the oldest of these groups (the ‘Kringla’ group), centred around Lbs
fragm 82 (Kringla), was written by a single hand (H Kri 1) who collabo-
rated with two further scribes (H Kri 2–3). the location of the production
5 Finnur Jónsson, Den oldnorske og oldislandske litteraturs historie (Copenhagen: Gads forlag,
1895), iv; Stefán Karlsson, “Kringum Kringlu,” Árbók Landsbókasafns Íslands 1976 (1977):
5–25; Stefán Karlsson, “Davíðssálmar með Kringluhendi,” Davíðsdiktur sendur Davíð
Erlingssyni fimmtugum 23. ágúst 1986, ed. Sigurgeir Steingrímsson (reykjavík: Menningar-
og minningarsjóður Mette Magnussen, 1986), 47–51.
6 An art historical investigation similarly dedicated to the social mechanisms of medieval
Icelandic manuscript productions has recently been presented by Guðbjörg Kristjánsdóttir,
“Lýsingar í íslenskum handritum á 15. öld,” Gripla XXVII (2016): 157–233.
7 the term ‘manuscript production unit’ is borrowed from Erik Kwakkel, “towards a
terminology for the analysis of Composite Manuscripts,” Gazette du livre médiéval 41
(2002): 12–19.